a.k.a. theVPO: Analysis and observation of Vermont politics from a liberal viewpoint

Lookin’ for love in at least one wrong place

Update: Looks like he’s done a bit of spring cleaning. “Simple Pickup” has been removed from Fiske’s Facebook page. Let it never be said that theVPO doesn’t have influence!

Update II: Rep. Fiske has responded in the Comments. I’ve attached his response to the end of this post.

Just like all hip and with-it 21st Century Vermonters, State Rep. Larry Fiske has a Facebook page. The Franklin County Republican has posted 22 “Likes” on his page. Most of them are just what you’d expect from a Republican, if you’ll excuse the stereotype: sports teams, fellow Republicans, local businesses. Ethan Allen Institute, natch. Former local news anchor Bridget Shanahan.

Simple Pickup proclaims itself “the foremost company in the world teaching on dating and relationships.”

Our mission is to ensure that all people — men and women — achieve their romantic goals.

“Men and women.” How equitable. Unfortunately, their method for ensuring that “all people… achieve their romantic goals” is to teach young men how to be pickup artists.

For example, take “Project Go,” a Simple Pickup endeavor that claims to have helped “over 50,000 guys around the world” to find “dating, relationship, and pickup success in life.” by finding how “how to get girls to love you.” And hey, free offer: if you sign up for Project Go, you “Get Our New Simple Pickup System FOR FREE.”

Their website emits a faint whiff of skeeve. But when you visit their YouTube channel, you get a full blast of it. Simple Pickup’s introductory video, for instance, is a fast-paced montage of boobs, butts, and men hooking up (or trying to) with the owners thereof, all set to an EDM beat.

A sensitive moment from the Simple Pickup introductory video.

Other Simple Pickup videos include “Picking Up Girls in a Fat Suit,” “How to Last Longer in Bed,” “Drunk Times with Pornstars,” and “Picking Up Girls While High as F**k.”

I hae no idea whether Larry Fiske has watched any of Simple Pickup’s videos, or taken part in its online forums on topics like “Your pickup aventures,” “Find a wingman,” and “So there’s this girl…”

But the good Representative has been married since 1992.

So is he knocking around on a skeevy dating/pickup site for a bit of a thrill, or is he actively trolling for skank? Nobody can answer that but him.

But listing Simple Pickup as one of only 22 Likes seems a little untoward. It’s not like he has dozens or hundreds of Likes. Perhaps he has a reasonable explanation.

Let’s hope so. Because Franklin County Republicans don’t need any more sex scandals, do they now?

___________________________Postscript. Rep. Fiske responded to this post in the Comments below. I wanted to include it in the body of the post for the sake of fairness.

For the record I do not know how this trash got on my Face Book page. I sent Face Book an email complaint. They suggested I change my password and if that didn’t stop this trash then I should take down my Face Book page and start another. They said I must have been spamed or compromised in some way. I do want to thank you for bringing this to my attention.

Hello John: This is Rep. Larry Fiske responding to the comment made about me. For the record I do not know how this trash got on my Face Book page. I sent Face Book an email complaint. They suggested I change my password and if that didn’t stop this trash then I should take down my Face Book page and start another. They said I must have been spamed or compromised in some way. I do want to thank you for bringing this to my attention. Once again, thanks John